I am embarrassed to admit that I am one of the last people to adopt anything hip. It took me years to decide to buy my first pair of capris. Remember when those knit caps from Nepal became really popular a few years ago? I just got one. I also just bought my first pair of Ugg-like boots last month.

Luckily I have a cousin who is a designer in New York City or I would be a total loss.

Which is why I have a real appreciation for anything that is hip. And I realized that IBM has actually been very prescient these days with new hip benchmark results. Let's take a look at a few: